This week, I was working with Graham Coppin and Heather Berry on appreciation. I am grateful to both of them for the coaching. Heather provided the motivation for this blogpost, and Graham has me working in the "appreciation gym" so that I can strengthen those muscules.Appreciation. What is it? The definition of which I am most fond is: "the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something".
While I appreciate many people, places, and things in my life, I had lost sight of my own divinity a long time ago. It's as if the veil of illusion (or Maya) was blocking my clear seeing of the truth. As a consequence, I was not appreciating the good I bring into this world. I'm in the process of reversing that error (or sin), and if Lynne Twist's assertion is true, then more good will be forthcoming. Watch out world!
I want to be careful here. I am not suggessting that I (or we) follow the lead of Narcissus, who was so enamored by the reflection of his own visage that he became paralzed by the reflecting pool, withered away, and died. No. I am suggesting somehting much more nuanced and balanced.
Here again, I'd like to return to Lynne Twist. She suggests that we can use appreciation as a powerful, intentional practice by paying deliberate attention to not only to what we do and have, but also to the good that we are. In this way, I intend to bring my own attention to, and reflection on, the good that I am (and that I do), so that I may enlarge and enrich my own experience, and that of those with whom I interact.
Who and what are you appreciating these days?
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